ALLEN — In vape shops across the city of Allen, officers scooped up evidence and marched out business owners in handcuffs.
In a coordinated raid, they struck nine locations simultaneously.
If you happened to be driving down Main Street, you would have noticed them in strip malls, lights flashing.
“It’s being sold right in front of our eyes,” said police chief Steve Dye.
Dye says the stores involved, more than a third of the vape shops within Allen city limits, were all caught marketing and selling products with illegal levels of THC, a compound derived from marijuana.
“We did multiple rounds of undercover operations, including sending minors in, and many of them were able to buy the THC underage. And then we started testing those products and we found that the vast majority of those products were well over the .3%,” he said.
Since 2019, Texas has allowed products with up to .3% THC – that’s one-third of 1% – to be sold legally as hemp.